Update on geisinger

[Newb]

I met with the director of the bariatric programand the surgery team, also attended a support group meeting. As for the program, I am on track for surgery in early june (if I stay here). The surgery team presented the surgeries, none of the team members were surgeons. At first I was annoyed, but I later knew why. The questions that most of the people were asking were absurdly embarrassing, if not completely juvenile. The entire show was over an hour, and it was painful. I did get to ask a few questions, but they didn't know ow the answers to my all of my questions. They did know for sure that there are 2 anastomosis in the ds they do. Also, their mortality ratw for the ds is 1%. I told them that I needed answers before my surgery consult and they obliged. I meet with the prospective surgeon on Feb 16th, just to answer my questions. I'm grateful for that, but can't help but be amazed at the group of people I was in the surgery class with. The support group was nice, all post ops in attendance spoke about their experiences. The least amount of weight lost was 75 pounds and tell most was 198, all had either RNY or vsg. One man did have complications, but said he would so it again in a heartbeat. Their range in time frame was 6 months to 5 years post op. The overwhelming sentiment form the post ops was that they felt that they were completely supported by the professionals in the program, complications or not.
I am hopeful, but still cautious.

 

[Newb]

Update to my update. Dr petrick, the head gi surgeon called me a while ago to answer my questions, I missed his call, but was able to get him between meetings. He told me I could email him the rest of the questions that I had because we wouldn't have time to discuss them all. He did tell me that geisinger ger has some patients, 10 years out with the ds. He said they were mostly doing RNY surgeries, bit in the last two years, the ds accounts for about 10% of their surgeries, roughly 400 a year. In all the years they have been doing the ds, they have only done one revision on a man, they lengthened his cc and he has been doing well ever since. Dr petrick said that they absolutely measure small bowel lengths to determine limb lengths, but he said he generally uses a cc length of 100 cm minimum, but that also depends on comorbidities and bmi. He also said that they definitely use 2 anastomosis, he said other surgeries are experimental and he hasn't seen any studies that showed any superior results to what they are doing currently. He also said that they will work with the patient to make sure they are doing what the patient wants. I thanked him and told him that I would email him the rest of the questions. My general ferling was that he was genuine and knowledgeable about the procedure. I know he is very busy, but was really impressed that he called me to answer my questions, he has never even seen me. I know they will make money from my surgery, but they don't need my business, they are not experiencing a shortage of patients. I will email him and let you know the answers to the questions that I get. At this time, I feeling a little bit more comfortable with surgery here

 

[southernlady]

Sounds good to me. Thanks for updating us.